What is Cyber Security?

Cybersecurity is the culmination of technological procedures, methods and applications planned to protect information, data, networks, computers and programs from any form of attack, destruction or unauthorized access. In generic context, the term security implies the safety of anything that is up on cyber network in any form.

The security includes not just controlling the software aspect but also physical malpractice by operators. This sector is ever growing due to the increase in dependence on computers and internet.
As the Internet of Things is expanding, the inter-connectivity of devices through wireless network is creating a web of world where security will be of prime concern. It is expected that by 2020 around 50 billion devices will be connected.

There are 3 kinds of cyber security risks-
Cyber Crime- This kind of cyber security threat comes from individuals working alone or in an organized group whose primary intent is to extract information related to finances mostly towards credit/debit card theft and impairing operations of a website or a service to make the firm/organization dysfunctional.
Cyber War- This type of cyber security threat is a nation state conducting a planned damage against another nation in order to cause trouble or to extract data. Mostly in such cyber war use of APTs is involved - Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs).
Cyber Terror
An organization, working independently of a nation state, conducting terrorist activities through the medium of cyberspace.

All kinds of cyber threat is in a continuous state of rapid evolution. Keeping track of cyber security and strategy for operations is the foremost challenge to governments who possess more sensitive data. Cyber security is a serious concern to private initiative as well, given the threat to intellectual property and critical infrastructure. Since there is no standard method for estimating the cost of a security threat, serious financial damages have been caused by security breaches in the past that cannot be calculated with a given value. While software security breaches are at large the primary factory of cyber security, physical hardware may be a source of greater threat. Usage of devices such as dongles, CD’s, hard drives etc may be considered as sources of physical hardware security breaches.

Currently challenges faced across globe related to cyber security involves difficulty in identifying attackers, as they are often in a different location thereby making them unavailable in the same jurisdiction to the systems they attempt to breach. Large number of times they operate through proxies, anonymous dial-up accounts, unsigned wireless connections, and other unidentified procedures which makes tracing them difficult. If they are successful in security breach they often delete logs to cover their tracks.

The simple number of attempted cyber security attacks is so much that firms cannot spend time chasing each attacker. One of the greatest challenges cyber security faces is that the law enforcement individuals are often unfamiliar with the IT world. With constant challenges at every step in the world of wireless web, securing important data and retaining information has become greater challenge. To overcome these encounters Advisory organizations such as The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) have updated strategies to promote a more proactive and adaptive approach that prescribes continuous monitoring and real-time assessments of cyber security.

With advancement of technology there is only hope that the blanket of data is protected across globe for macro plans such as Internet of Things to not just successfully penetrate but also benefit the world.

In our further edition we will discuss the challenges faced by individuals and organizations with Cyber Security threats and the legit solutions to overcome the cyber espionage. The idea and importance of cyber security and its management.